DAZ 3D LuxRender Quick Start Tutorial

LuxRender Quick Start TutorialVersion 0.1Micahel F. TooSaturday 10th September, 2011my 32bit Xp pro system.Hi Aki3,Sorry you’ve had such a hardtime with trying to get Luxrender up and running. I’d hopedit would have sorted out by nowbut I know how frustrating thesethings can be, the people here arereally helpful and generous withthere time and patient explanations.I’m probably not the best qualified to explain this and I’m surethere are many others who coulddo a better job, but this is a sort ofthank you for those who taken thetime to help me, so please bearwith me. I don’t know if this is thecorrect way of installing LuxrenderDS but this is how I was ableto get it successfully running onHi Aki3, I saw your new postand I’m really glad that you wereable to get the LuxRenderDS plugin going that’s awesome, I hopethat you have fun. And as yousuggested I will put up what Iprepared for those who are looking to install Tofusans LuxRenderDS plugin for the first time.It’s important to explain thatTofusan’s LuxRenderDS is a pluginthat allows Daz Studio 3 to talkto the LuxRender Render Engine.Daz Studio 3 is used to set upthe scene, Tofusan’s LuxRenderDSplugin is used to set up your lightsand materials and then it translates all that into a language thatluxRender can understand andsends that infomation to LuxRender. LuxRender in turn reconstructs that information about thescene and then Renders the Result.LuxRender also allows some realtime control over lighting while itrendering.First of all you need to download and install Luxrender fromhttp://www.luxrender.net/en GB/standalone#windowsYou will need one of the installers (not the archives) whichbest fits your system specifications. If you have either Mac orLinux keep scrolling down andyou will find an installer there.Install Luxrender, and allow itto install to your c: drive, if youchoose to put it somewhere else,please remember the path as itwill be needed later.Download the Latest LuxrenderDS PluginNext download the latestThe site is in Japanese, so you plugin available, giving the DazLuxrenderDS plugin from Tofu- need to get google to translate it Studio 3 community free accesssan’s sitefor you.to the LuxRender render ad.htmlTofusan is the generous perPlease check out the linksson whose continued hard work to Tofusan’s earlier versions of(in his own free time), makes this LuxRenderDS as they contain im1

Download the Latest LuxrenderDS Pluginportant tips and tricks for usingother features in LuxRenderDS.Keep an eye on his downloadpage as often new updates will beposted there before they appearin his main page.Scroll down until you see –LuxRenderDS Plugin VersionLuxRender Quick Start Tutorial (Check: tinyurl.com/michaeltoo)and click on the folder Icon.This will take you to Tofusan’s skydrive where his zips arehoused.Click the Latest LuxrenderDS Plugin Version, and DownloadNavigate to where you saved the LuxRenderDS plugin. Unzip the Plugin file into the Daz Studio3Content folder.If you installed Daz Studio3 to your C drive thepath may look something like this –C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio3\content\1. Navigate to your Daz Studio 3 folder2. If you unzipped it to the right place you willnow have two new folders called Win32 andWin64 in the DazStudio3 folder (there is alsoa ReadMe EN.txt that you should have a goodlook at). Open either the Win32 folder if youhave a 32bit system or the Win64 folder if youhave a 64bit system.3. Open up the Plugins folder and copy theLuxrenderDS folder4. Paste the LuxrenderDS folder into the DazStudio3 plugins folder. The plugin is now installed. (:2Click the Latest LuxrenderDS Plugin Version, and Download

LuxRender Quick Start Tutorial (Check: tinyurl.com/michaeltoo)Daz Studio3Daz Studio3Now open up Daz Studio3. In DAZ Studio3 we needto go to the view Menu - Tabs and then click onLuxRender to open up the LuxRender Tab.If everything went well it should open up thenew Luxrender Tab, I docked mine on the right. I’mnot sure how you have set up your folders, but in mysetup, in the Content Tab on the left, in the DazStudio3 folder there is a new LuxrenderDS folder withLuxrenderDS Lights and Materials. . . This is just for a quick test, load in M4, then when DAZ is ready add a Sun light from your LuxRenderDSLights folder by clicking on Sun Icon.Daz Studio33

Daz Studio3LuxRender Quick Start Tutorial (Check: tinyurl.com/michaeltoo)Now Comes The Fun Bit1. Click on the Render Tab2. Navigate to a folder you want to keep yourtrial renders in or make a new folder for thispurpose.3. It is Important that you rename your filesevery time you render, if you don’t LuxRender will overwrite your last render. This hascaught me out more than once.Important Note – While you are in Settings, makesure that the LuxRender path is pointing to whereyou installed Luxrender. If you you installedLuxRender to the c drive it will look somethinglike this C:/Program Files/LuxRender but if you installed it somewhere else put that Path in.Important Note – For those using a 32bit systemmake sure that the Reduced Memory Consumption is ticked. As the 32bit system is limited to theamount of ram that it can use, only 2gb. So keepthat in mind if LuxRender keeps crashing whiletrying to render a scene.Important Note – For those using a 32bit systemset the Preview Quality to low (this is for the materials preview used in the Material tab, higher settings take forever)For 64bit users, LuxRender is able to use as muchram as you can throw at it, enjoy. (:When you are finished with settings press Accept.4. If you want to change the default folderLuxRender saves your files to, click on the farright arrow head on the LuxRender Tab (I’mnot sure why but sometime you might see 2and other times 3 arrow heads, might depend5. Make sure that the Write *.flm for resumeon the position of Tab?) it will give you twois ticked. You will need this to resume youroptions, Settings and Close, choose Settingsrender at a later time.and change default output folder path to oneof your choosing.The Daz Studio scene below was impossible to render it kept crashing LuxRender due to the memorylimitation. What I did to get around this was tohide anything that is not seen in the actual scene,including any objects outside the actual view of thecamera.In the scene below I turned off M4 hips, legs andfeet as they were hidden under clothing, I even hidthe upper and lower jaw and tongue as his mouth4Now Comes The Fun Bit

LuxRender Quick Start Tutorial (Check: tinyurl.com/michaeltoo)was closed. With the background model (Jack Tomalins - Keep Entrance) I turned off the walls, roof andlower parts of the stairs. I also reduce the numberof lights I was using.Daz Studio3rendering your test scene. Give LuxRender afew seconds (especially if you are on the 32bitsystem) as it loads in your scene, you may geta black image then a pixelated one and it willcontinue to improve the longer you leave it.Another thing to watch is the Daz Studio Rendersettings in particular the “final output size”. This This leads us to an important question that is oftenwill have a big impact on the memory so keep an asked: “When is LuxRender finished rendering myeye on it. So unfortunately for us 32bit users it a bit Image?”Well never really, it will just continue to bounceof a balancing act but still worth it.lights around until you tell it to stop. There’s a lot6. Click on the Tools tabof things that can influence the final render time,lighting, material setting, networking, amount of7. Important Step make sure you always click onram, number of Threads used (for those on multi”Initial Setup of all Materials and Lights” butcore systems) and lets not forget whether you areton before you render your scene otherwiseon 32bit or 64bit.none of your objects will have any materials,So for some, they may feel that there imageand will come out all white. Its also Importantlooks just right after 30min, while others will leavefor setting up your materials, but we won’tit rendering for two or three hours. I render a lot ofget into that here. But when you are ready,images out 600x800 just to test lighting and materihave a look at the LuxRender Wiki http:als. I’m normally happy after an hour or so.//www.luxrender.net/wiki/Main Page.Once I used my Intel dual core 32bit machine8. LuxRender will render at what ever output networked with a computer with the same specificasize is set in your Daz Render setting! So tions, to rendered an image that was 1600x1131, forcheck that before you render, for now set it something like 18 hours before I felt happy with it.to 600x800 and choose accept. Then back to I changed the lights slightly and rendered it again,the Luxrender Tab and Click on Render, DAZ and felt I got a better result after 12 hours. Yeahwill prepare the file and send it to LuxRender so it might take some experimentation to see whatwhich should automatically open and start works in each situation!Now Comes The Fun Bit5

Daz Studio3LuxRender Quick Start Tutorial (Check: tinyurl.com/michaeltoo)Click on the Light Groups tab, andplay around with the Sky and Sunsliders. “Wow”, I hear you saying butwait there’s more . . .1. Click on the Colour Space arrow and Preset drop down arrow and pick a Light setting2. Click on the Gamma Film Response arrow and Film Response drop down arrow pick one thatsuits you tastes.When you’re finished, Save and Exit. If you wantto resume your render just open up Luxrender (youdon’t have to reopen Daz Studio3 again), go to OpenRecent and it should appear in the drop down list.If your file does not appear in the drop downlist then click on Resume FLM, and then navigateto the folder you saved your Render to, and choosethe “what ever you called the file.FLM”.You will also find your finished Render in thatsame folder, it should be a PNG unless you’vechanged it, back in the LuxRender Render Tab inDaz Studio3.6This tutorial barely scratches the surface of whatTofusan’s plugin and LuxRender can do, I hopethis gives you some idea of how to get started withLuxRender anyway. I hope you enjoy Tofusan’swonderful plugin.Please if there is anything that is not clear, mistakes, important things left out or better waysof handling things in this tutorial please let meknow and I will edit them as soon as I can.michael.too@gmail.comNow Comes The Fun Bit

LuxRender Quick Start Tutorial (Check: tinyurl.com/michaeltoo)ReferencesReferencesAll screen shots and programs used in this tutorial were taken from the following sites and programs1. Tofusan’s Web Site – l2. Tofusan’s SkyDrive – https://skydrive.live.com/?cid 5ac2dad2137b3be2&sc documents&id 5AC2DAD2137B3BE2%211723. LuxRender Download site – http://www.luxrender.net/en GB/standalone#windows4. LuxRenderDS version Version 0.7.3.8 – l5. LuxRender version 0.8 – http://www.luxrender.net6. The DAZ Studio 3.1 Program – http://www.daz3d.com7. Windows Explorer Program – http://www.microsoft.comIn thepast God spoke to our forefathersthrough the prophets at manytimes and in various ways, but inthese last days he has spoken tous by his Son, whom he appointedheir of all things, and throughwhom he made the universe.2 The Son is the radiance of God’sglory and the exact representationof his being, sustaining all thingsby his powerful word.3 After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down atthe right hand of the Majesty inheaven.Hebrew 1:1-3NIVNIV ( c 1984)http://PaulANorman.infoReferences7

LuxRender Quick Start Tutorial Version 0.1 Micahel F. Too Saturday 10th September, 2011 Hi Aki3, Sorry you’ve had such a hard time with trying to get Luxren-der up and running. I’d hoped it would have sorted out by now but I know how frustrating these things can be, the people here are re